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W. A. GEIGER.

DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM FOR REFRIGERATOR CAR DOORS.

APPLICATION -FILED IAN. 8. 19H].

1,303,880. Patented May 20, 1919.

/9 III INVENTOR. Wzllz'arn fl G'gger BY Z ATT NEY an adjacent platform.

hinged doors 13 and WILLIAllI A. GEIGER, or crncaeo,

ILLINOIS, 'ASSIG-NOR T0 WILLIAM H. MINER, OF

CHAZY, NEWYOR-K.

DOOR-OPERATING MECHANISM FOR REFRIGERATOR-CAR DOOR S.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 20, 1919.

Application filed January 8, 1918. Serial No. 210,954.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. GEIGER, a citizen of the- United States, residing at Chicago,,in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Door-Operating Mechanism for Refrigerator-Car Doors, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification. ,k

This invention relates to improvements in door operating mechanism for refrigerator car doors.

In theo' eration of refrigerator cars, great difficulty as heretofore been experienced in those car siwhere a door operating shaft is employed; that extends above and below the door to engage with keepers on the side wall of the car due to the fact that, whenthe car is alongside a platform, theportion'of the shaft depending below the lower edge of the door strikes the platform. and soften necessitates chop-ping away the latter to permit the door to swing fully open.

One object of my invention is to provide a door operating mechanism for refrigerator carsso arranged that the operating shaft can be elevated to a position flush or substantially flush with the lower edge of the refrigerator car door and thereby permit the latter to be easily swung out over specific object of the a door operating Another and more invention is to provide mechanism wherein the as to be able to clear an adjacent platform simultaneously-with the door opening movement of the shaft to thereby simplify the efforts of the operator. .1:

In the drawing forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a side elevation of a portion of a refrigerator carshowing my improvements in connection therewith. Fig. 2 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken substantially on the line 2,-2 of Fig. 1. And Fi 3 is a horizontal, sectional view taken su stantially on the line 3-3 of Fig.

1. In said drawing, the side door opening of the refrigerator car is shown as-defined by a threshold 10, side posts 11-11 andlintel 12. The door opening is adapted to be closed in the usual manner by a pair of 14, said doors 13 and shaft is elevated so 14 having beveled meeting edges and the door 14 being the last one 'to be forced to closed position, as will be understood.

For opening, closing and locking the doors, Mounted on the doorl i are upper and lower combined rack and bearing brackets A- A. Each of said brackets, which is rigidly secured to the door 14, has a horizontally extending rack 15 and an elongated bearing formed between inner and outer Walls 16 and 17 of the bracket. Journaled in said brackets A-A is an operating shaft B, the latter having a central bar section 18, forked end castings 1919 secured to the bar section, and upper and lower gears 2Q-20. Each end casting 1.9 is forked at its inner end so as to straddle the bar section 18 and be riveted thereto. At its extreme outer end, each end casting 19 is provided with a cylindrical end portion 21 and intermediate the end portion 21 and the forked portion, each end casting has a squared section, as indicated at 22. The gear 20 is arranged to mesh with the rack 15 and each gear has a sleeve 23 which rolls back and forth within the elongated bearing heretofore described and which is formed between the walls 16 and 17 of each bracket A. The shaft 15 is rotated by an operating handle 24 arranged as most clearly appears in Fig. 1.

Secured to the threshold 10 and to the lintel 12'are keepers 25 and 26, respectively- The keeper 25 is provided with a doubleacting cam for cooperation with the lower end 21 of the shaft. Said double-acting cam includes a slot defined by the walls 27 and 28 and an inclined bottom surface 29.

I employ the following mechanism:

As will be apparent, as the lower end of the operating shaft rolls back and forth in the slot formed by the walls 27 and 28, the door 1A will be positively forced either inwardly or outwardly depending upon the direction of rotation of the shaft B. Similarly, when the shaft B is rotated from the position shown in full lines in Fig. 1 to the position shown in dotted lines, the lower end of the shaft will travel up the inclined surface 29 and thus elevate the shaft B as an entirety. The upper keeper 26 is similar to the lower keeper 25 except that the inclined surface 29 thereof for engaging the upper end of the shaft is reversed and is adapted to force the shaft B' downwardly as it is rotated from the position indicated the dotted lines to the position indicated byfull lines in Fig. 1.

seen that as the operator swings the handle I '24 from'the full line position to the dotted scribed is simple and overcomes the difli-' line position, the shaft B will roll bodily due to the meshing of the gears 20 with the racks 15 and simultaneously with this movement, the shaft B will be elevated, the squared sections 22 being slidable with respect to the gears 20. Also, the door member 14 will be positively opened during this movement since the shaft B is force'd outwardly while traveling in the cam slots of the keepers 25 and 26. The inclined surface 29 is made such that the lower endof the shaft will be raised substantially flush with the lower edge of the door as the shaft clears the keeper 25 and to hold the shaft B in its elevated position, the operating lever 24 may be provided with a pin 30 so-posi tioned as to-rest upon a shelf bracket 31 carried by the door 14.

The arrangement herein shown and deculties heretofore experienced in connection with refrigerator doors thatare swung over adJacent platforms and the arrangement is,

such that the operator is not required 'to execute any movements other than those to which he isnow accustomed, the elevating of the shaft being automatic during the opening-movement of the door'and the low ering of the shaft positive duringthe-close I movement. I cl alm tion with a rotatable operating shaft for v the door. i

1. In arefrigerator-car havin a pivoted,

in closing the door outwardly swinging side door, -t e combinaadapted to cooperate to eflectthe closing and opening movements .of the door, and From the preceding description, it will be cam means on said keeper cooperating with the lower end of said shaft for elevating the shaft simultaneously vwith its opening rotato effect the closing and openingmovements of the door, and means on said keeper for positively elevating the shaft during the rotation of the latter to effect theopening of 3. In a. refrigerator a pivoted outwardly swinging side doo-r,'the combmation with an operating shaft rotat ably mounted on said door, of "upper and lower keepers carried by the car located above andbelow the upper and lower edges of the door, said keepers and ends of the shaft cooperating to force the door toclosed-or open positaneously with its rotative movement in.

, tion as the shaft is rotated, means on the y i lower keeper for elevating said shaft simulopening the door, and'means: on the upper keeper for forcing the shaft downwardly simultaneously with its rotative movement In witness that I' clainr'the foregoing I have hereunto subscribed my name this 29th day of Dec., 1917 WILLIAM A. GEIGERQ" 

